The present invention relates to an action transmission system, a terminal apparatus, an action transmission method, and an action transmission program and, more particularly, to an action transmission system, a terminal apparatus, an action transmission method, and an action transmission program that are capable of transmitting the intensity of action after adjusting the same so as to be adapted to the subjectivities of sender person and receiver person.
Telephone, electronic mail, and chat for example are known as means of communication executed by use of terminal apparatuses.
In the face-to-face communication not based on terminal apparatuses, not only meanings are transmitted through natural language, but also emotions and situations are transmitted through various means such as facial expression, bodily action, and feeling, for example.
In contrast, the communication based on terminal apparatuses is effective mainly in conveying meanings by natural language, but is difficult in conveying emotions, situations, and feelings that are not expressed by natural language, for example.
In the virtual communication practiced on the Internet, human-shaped computer synthesized images called avatars are used to simulate human feelings, but only in a limited, insufficient manner.
Currently, as described above, the communication based on terminal apparatuses is practiced but in a very restricted manner in terms of representing human feelings.
In an attempt to improve this situation, a communication apparatus is proposed in which the information about human feeling is detected, the detected action information is transmitted, and the transmitted information is received as vibration information or temperature information as provided in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2000-49956.
In the above-mentioned disclosed technology, physical quantities such as acceleration and temperature detected by a detection unit including an acceleration sensor and a thermistor arranged in a sender terminal apparatus are encoded. The encoded information is received by a receiver terminal apparatus for use in driving a vibrator and a temperature control device, thereby reproducing equivalent physical quantities.
However, the relationship between the physical quantities obtained from action information and the intention or subjectivity of each actor differs from person to person. In addition, the tactual sensations to vibration, pressure, and temperature differ from person to person.
For example, between a person having a high grip strength and a person having a low grip strength, there is generally a difference in grip strength value obtained when a mobile phone for example is normally held in the hand. Also, some persons feel a vibration strong while others feel it weak depending on the muscles, skins, and thickness of their hands.
The same holds with vibration and temperature. Consequently, in the communication based on terminal apparatuses for transmitting the physical quantities such as action information and temperature information for example, the intention or subjectivity of the sender may not be correctly transmitted to the receiver when an action for example detected by the sender is reproduced as an equivalent physical quantity.
It is desirable to transmit action information with intensity according to sender and receiver subjectively.